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USDN Podcast is a cinematic indie comics interview series hosted by the USDN_Chairman and the Council of Nerds — spotlighting the creators, storytellers, and worldbuilders shaping the future of independent comics.
Each episode dives beyond headlines into the real journeys behind the books — from Kickstarter launches and creative struggles to the philosophies driving today’s indie storytelling movement.
This isn’t about rumors or recycled news.
It’s about the people creating the worlds.
Through in-depth conversations, creator spotlights, and crowdfunding discussions, USDN explores:
• The rise of indie comics
• The business of crowdfunding
• The art of worldbuilding
• The realities of independent storytelling
USDN is where indie comics come to life — for the fans, by the creators, and powered by the community.
You are listening to the USDN on the DFPN.
Thanks for watching!
What is up, everybody?
And as always,
it's your chairman of the
United States Department of Nerds,
where we are for the people,
by the people, and of the people.
And today,
we have a three-by repeat
offender to the podcast
with Bruno Caterino with
his new Kickstarter, Crimson Bay.
Bruno, welcome back.
How's it feel to be a repeat
offender to the USDN?
Well,
it seems like the right kind of
repeat offender.
It's the best kind, in my opinion.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for having me again.
I've told you several times
that you are always welcome
here with your books.
I love how your books bring
something different.
And you quite possibly write
some of the best
cliffhangers I have ever read in my life.
thank you uh yeah that's
great to hear uh yeah if
you think the cliffhanger
for issue one is good you
need to read the
cliffhanger for you already
teasing us with the issue
two on this one yeah it's
it's it's bad it's bad as
in it's yeah it's so bad
it's good um it's not for
me to judge but it leaves
you wanting to know what
happens I think hopefully
You always do.
You always do.
So let's jump into this one.
So this is going to be your
third Kickstarter with us,
which I'm very proud to have you back on.
So
Let's just jump right into it.
Tell the people what they
can expect from Crimson Bay.
I've read it.
I love it.
It's Street Fighter.
It's Street Fighter with a story,
basically.
That's how I felt going into it,
and I loved it.
Or a Double Dragon, something like that,
you know?
So tell us about Crimson Bay.
Yeah, I mean,
you mentioned Street Fighter
with the story.
I think we actually had like
a Street Fighter with the
story in video games.
It's just a game that not a
lot of people know, which is, you know,
King of Fighters and the whole SNK thing.
They did like, sorry, let me ask,
do you hear any music coming from me?
Okay.
Oh, yeah.
So we barely hear the music.
I'm sorry.
I had muted myself and didn't realize it.
Kelvin, welcome to the show, bro.
Hello.
Yeah, because there's someone.
Yeah.
Sorry about that.
Really noticeable.
I lost my train of thought.
You're telling us about Crimson Bay.
uh yeah I was saying yeah
there was a this game that
for me was like still the
best was king of fighters I
absolutely love that
all the you know games in
that family like you know
fatal fury art of fighting
uh you know all that smk
kind of property uh was
awesome and it had a story
and it was like mcu like in
the nineties so I really
like that stuff so
So while Street Fighter is
obviously a big inspiration because,
you know, it's the OG, plus, you know,
Final Fight, Streets of Rage,
all of those are classics.
All classics, man, all classics.
Yeah, you mentioned Double Dragon also,
you know, great.
So, but yeah,
I think King of Fighters is
probably like the main sort
of inspiration because it's that,
it's that fighting game with the story.
And that's kind of what I
was going for is,
Yeah, it is about the action.
It is about the fight.
Again,
I'm sorry for my phone because... Oh,
you're good.
Nothing is going right today.
Ah, you're good.
So, yeah,
it's that intense fighting
inspired by the games and
by anime and that sort of thing.
But with a solid story,
with characters that you
can feel for them,
that you can relate to them
and that are going through
problems that are relatable
even if you know the
martial arts they practice
kind of defy physics and
logic and all of that whole
point of those video games
is that no human should be
able to do what they do but
they do it anyway and
that's what I always loved
about that kind of stuff
you say that but uh
researching for the book
because I kind of started
very like close and then I
started wanting to be more
realistic in future issues
so I started watching a lot
of martial arts videos and
I've seen some people do
some really really weird
stuff like I don't know how
they do it so humans can do
some really insane stuff
that you can think of yeah
yeah so you said you
watched some martial arts
movies what did you watch specifically
not movies like videos like
uh actual yeah I mean
videos and stuff yeah
youtube videos about you
know different uh different
things about you know uh
different styles of uh
karate new time okay
all of that, you know,
the styles that kind of fit
each of the characters that
are in issue one or in later issues.
So yeah,
so I'm kind of just trying to get
myself into that world and
be a little bit more accurate,
even though everything they
do is not accurate at all,
but I still want to have
some of that realism, but yeah.
No, I mean, it works, though.
I mean,
you do see a little bit of the
futuristic stuff in there.
But at the same time,
it wasn't outside of the
norm of what you would see
in Streets of Rage or
something like that.
So for me, I like that kind of stuff.
You know, that's what appeals.
is it's very relatable the
characters I really enjoyed
um the brothers and then
the antagonist in the story
was I thought like very
like especially the way you
cliffhanged this on this
one it was very like oh wow
there's this heartfelt
moment and then all of a
sudden it was like boop
flicking away because his
greatest enemy is now there
you know the life he just
saved is you know this
I'm not going to go into it, but yeah,
you know what I'm talking about.
Yeah.
I don't want to sell it.
I don't want to give it away,
but it was very fascinating
the way you did that.
I was like, geez, Bruno.
I'm like, what are you doing to us, dude?
Yeah.
I mean, John Ford,
like the director is a
massive inspiration in that
sense because he has these, I don't know.
He has this thing.
I call it like the John Ford
punch because it's like, yeah,
it makes you go towards one
emotion and then it
suddenly hits you with a
different emotion.
It's like, what?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I love that.
So, yeah.
So when I write, I do try to do that.
Obviously not as effectively
as John Ford did,
but I do try to do that.
I think you nailed it with this one.
So did you work with people
you already knew on this
book or did you go out and
grab some new people or how did you,
So I know you write,
other people do the art.
So are you working with the
same people as before on
some of your other work?
Or did you want to just like, hey,
I want to do something different.
Let's grab some different people.
uh no it was actually um
sorry uh it was actually
with uh uh samuel and geo
who I worked with for uh
bereavement uh that may
have been the first time
that we kind of talked
right I think it was
bereavement yep bereavement
yeah it was the first one
yeah so uh yeah I mean I
work with them they they
work really great together
they do amazing work they
are incredibly fast um so
yeah I wanted to work with
them again uh I kind of
spoke with samuel and asked
him hey I have these two
projects I was actually
thinking of him for another
project but I kind of
pitched both and he was
like I actually prefer that
one and I'm like okay cool
let's do that and that was
crimson bay so uh so yeah um
I had already worked with
Samuel Langeo in Bereavement,
and I had worked with Matias,
the letterer, in many different projects,
and I just thought, you know, yeah,
let's add him to the mix.
The art was very different, though.
That's why I was asking the question,
because in Bereavement,
you had this very vibrant, like,
but dark, you know, kind of story to it,
you know, not necessarily a dark story,
but a story with the
unexpected twist involved in it.
And then in this one,
the colors are very vibrant.
They're very lush and very pop.
You know, it's a city set in, it's,
it wasn't an outer space.
Like some of your other stories are dark,
you know, London street and like parasite,
I think.
Yeah.
So,
like kind of like what area
are you basing this story
out of in like crimson bay
was that just something you
made up or did you have an
inspiration with the name
oh uh that went through a
lot of uh different um uh
iterations it was not the
original name the original
name was like something
like shattered bonds or
something like that which
was more about the two
brothers kind of thing yeah
but it's not I don't know
it feels like it's a it's a
name that tells you what the
what it is but in a very
direct way yeah interesting
and I think crimson bay is
a lot more it does it it
has it resonates a little
bit more when you say it
it's more evocative and you
know you can have the uh so
the crimson bay comes
basically from the the
water one of the panels you
see like the the water is
reflecting like red like
blood yeah yeah and it
comes from the buildings
that kind of give that vibe
uh sorry do you do you hear any of this
Barely, barely, Bruno.
I don't think it's going to bleed over.
Okay, it's really annoying.
I'm sorry about that.
No, you're good.
That's part of living in the city, right?
This is me working like
every day trying to focus on just this,
like the works outside.
I have airplanes, like literal jets.
Wow.
Okay.
Anyway, as I was saying, as I was saying,
yeah, there's this, yeah,
Crimson Bay kind of is more
evocative and it has this, you know,
it's the name of the town,
but it's also about all the
violence and all the blood.
And so it has like this double meaning.
And yeah.
You do set the intro of this
story very well from like
how you introduce us to the character and
like kind of you dive a
little bit into the
background just enough you
know so you know where
their place is and like
where they're coming from
on things and that's
something that I always
think you do very well is
you give us that right
amount to where you could
in your head you can like
okay I see where where
they're coming from and
where we're going with this
a little bit and
So that was really like,
I enjoyed that about the
book itself is how you do that.
So.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean,
I feel like from a craft point of view,
obviously, you know,
people will have different opinions,
but from a craft point of view,
I think this might be,
my best book so far because
of that because of how how
much is back just in the
first three pages um but
yeah I mean obviously you
know people well tell me
whether they like it or not
but that's a different
story yeah I I I'm going to
agree with you on that I've
read three of your books
now you've been on three
different times and I've
read some of your other books as well
like this one simply out of
the concept that you're
deriving it from as well
because I'm a huge huge fan
I love the dark horror
stuff that you do don't get
me wrong I love that kind
of stuff but this one is
more of a a fun throwback
to your childhood sitting
at home on your sega super
nes playstation whatever it
was and just playing hours
and hours of you know
beat-em-up video games,
or at the arcade wasting
tons of quarters on these things.
And as I'm reading it,
that's how I feel the entire time is,
is I'm watching and reading
this video game play out in
front of me with this very
unique story with just the
right amount of fighting in it.
And I was like, dude,
we deserve a video game
that plays like that,
like a three-D video game,
like just a three-D beat-em-up,
like modern-day game like that.
I'm like, we need that.
yeah and when you think
about it I don't know is
there anything like that at
the moment in terms of
there is but not like
mostly you know we got like
assassin's creed and stuff
like that that kind of
their three d fighting
games you know but not like
pure pure fighting games
like old school arcade
style that's a three d
where you can move around
the entire environment and
the story is is playing at the same time
And I'm like, dude,
that would be kind of cool
if somebody did that.
And there may be something
out there that I'm just not aware of.
Yeah.
No, yeah.
Yeah, I can't think of anything either.
I think there's a lot of like, you know.
I can slash kind of action stuff.
It's just not the same.
Yeah.
Like you're fighting, like no weapons,
just pure fighting in a
three D environment in a
story being told to me,
that would just be like dope as hell.
But yeah,
I'm a fan of that era of video games.
Someone out there who makes games, just,
you know,
get on it because you have two
people that would totally buy it here.
I'm sure there's more than us.
Yeah, exactly.
That's it.
Just two people.
With... I'm trying to think
how I want to phrase this.
From how you wanted the...
like,
the coloring of the book and the
drawing and the characters, like,
was your artist and your colors,
were they, like, pretty spot on with,
like, how you've seen it happening?
Or was there a lot of, like,
back and forth with, hey,
what about this?
Or, like, hey, I'm thinking more this.
Because it's not, like, to be fair,
I was kind of expecting a little bit more,
like,
ninety style almost like
that eight bit sixteen bit
style art and I'm really
happy we didn't get that to
be fair but I was kind of
like a little bit a little
a little piece of me was
kind of like this would
have been kind of cool in
like a sixteen bit you know
kind of distorted way but
I'm glad we didn't get that
but there was there was a
slight piece of me that
would have been like that
would have been kind of
cool yeah one of the things
that I wanted to have done
was uh cover that would be eight bit
like pixelized and all of that pixel art.
That would have been really dope, yeah.
Yeah,
but because I already had enough covers,
I thought, you know what,
I'm going to leave that for issue two.
But yeah,
issue two definitely is going to
have like a pixel art cover because I,
that's, yeah, that's really dope.
I don't know if that's what
you meant or if you
actually meant like that
nineties style of comic book art.
A little bit of both, yeah.
Okay, okay.
Yeah, I mean,
I think Sam has like this more,
I don't want to call it
like anime because it's not really anime,
but it's more of that style.
It's very water and art.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think it works really well for this.
It really does.
But again,
there's that small piece of that
nineties childhood that was kind of like,
it'd been kind of cool to see like,
Even a little throwback
maybe on a TV screen of
some kid playing a video game.
Just that one little thing
where somebody would...
That little throwback in
there or that little Easter
egg hidden somewhere in there.
Just that little thing.
People like me, when we read comic books,
I study panels.
I want to see the panels and what's there.
read it but also I look at
the pages because you never
know what you're going to
find on a page of a comic
right yeah so it's just one
of those little fun nods
and nod like throwbacks to
what inspired the book
Yeah,
I took a note just to say just very
cheekily because that's a good idea.
And you have some good ideas.
Hey,
let's talk about one of those ideas
real quick.
So we were talking before we came live.
I was like, hey, Bruno, you know,
in the nest when you have
to call it round two.
Yeah.
Instead of issue two,
because to me that just
like it ties that theme, it ties that.
the book into what you want
to do with it together,
like calling it rounds instead of issues.
So, yeah, I mean, that's,
that's a brilliant idea.
I don't know how I did not
think about that.
I'm, I'm glad that I haven't launched yet,
but I'm probably going to be changing the,
uh, the, the texts in yeah.
For that, because it's definitely, yeah,
it's definitely a fantastic idea.
I'm going to take it.
It's not the first time that
I took an idea from you because I still,
every now and then I'm like,
I gave him that idea.
yeah yeah the one little
moment where I'm feeling
really good about it like
yeah I gave him that idea
yeah I mean thank you for
that yeah I mean the last
one was like the the covers
for um cinematic figments
which you mentioned this
would look really cool as a
virgin cover and it's like
I have it it's absolutely
beautiful it does I mean
it's amazing um yeah I have
a lot of covers and that's
one of my favorite covers
just simply because
once you strip that
cinematic figments off of it,
it's just this, like, it makes you,
it gives you so many different thoughts.
Like, what is this book?
What's this about?
You know,
it just plays with your emotions
and just,
like it's just beautiful the
colors the art everything
just so good together yeah
yeah yeah I mean it's worth
talking to you just for
this to take ideas from you
because a lot of them are
amazing I've told you many
times I'm here man run
ideas by me it goes for
anybody coming on here you
have an idea and you're
like hey I wonder what he thinks about it
Yeah, I mean, and just following on that,
because you mentioned, you know,
using the round two and all of that,
I did try to kind of use some of that,
you know, the concepts and all of that.
So one of the things that I
have with one of the
rewards is putting together like...
these I call them like isco
combos as in international
shipping uh costs uh
optimized something like
that which is like a pack
of like three comics you
know crimson bay and two
other comics yeah that
makes it the shipping cost
tends to be you know a lot
expensive but when you get
like three books there's like
Yeah, there's like a cap to the cost.
It makes the cost like better.
And I kind of just created
that and I call them combos because,
you know, I could call it like, you know,
packs, you know, something like that.
I like it.
It's much nicer.
So yeah, it's so the round one,
round two fits right in.
Yeah.
Three hit combo.
Yeah.
I like it.
I like it.
Excuse me.
So give us a little
background of the
characters and basically
like the story for Crimson Bay.
Yeah, sure.
This is the part where I'm really bad at,
which is pitching my own work.
You should see me at Comic Cons.
So yeah,
Crimson Bay is basically about
these two brothers who have
made this pledge to avenge
their father who was killed
by his supposed best friend.
And that
let's call him villain,
like the final boss,
whatever you want to call it.
He's now the mayor of Crimson Bay.
So he has a lot of power.
And yeah, of course,
these two brothers are
going in after training an
entire life to defeat him.
are finally trying to
accomplish that goal and um
a lot of things are not
exactly what they seem to
be there are some mysteries
some revelations that make
things well harder and uh
yeah some dilemmas that
will kind of break them
apart and uh yeah
potentially put them at
odds with each other the
two brothers so that's
That's terribly explained.
That's it.
I think it's... No, dude,
I think that hit it right
on the head there.
Yeah, I think it's very explained,
actually, in text when I wrote it,
but yeah.
No, you nailed that one.
Yeah, that's... Yeah.
I will write another public speaker.
No, that was really good.
Without giving a whole lot away,
that's the best way to do it.
So let's actually talk about
the Kickstarter campaign
itself this time around.
I know you have a really
great publication out there
on running a Kickstarter
that I have actually
recommended to other people.
and told them where to find it,
like sent them the link to
your site to where they could find that.
So hopefully that's helped
out some people.
And but how are you doing
things a little differently
on this Kickstarter
compared to some of your
other Kickstarter and just
like what can we expect off
of this campaign versus
previous campaigns?
And yeah,
I think the benefit with doing a
few is that you start
learning what works and what doesn't.
So I used to have like a lot of like,
you know, prints, bookmarks,
that sort of stuff.
And I don't know,
I get a feeling that people
don't really care that much, you know,
if it's not known characters.
If you go to a Comic-Con and
someone has prints of, I don't know,
Baldur's Gate,
people will just be all over it.
But if it's like a known character,
you know,
people are not really that interested.
So I try to focus more on the books.
And I'm lucky enough that
now I have some books, not just the one.
So yeah, I try to play around with that.
a lot of the a lot of the
rewards are around you know
there's definitely the the
book there's like three
variant covers so there's
the the main cover there's
a cover that's uh an homage
to king of fighters two
thousand to the the poster
one other cover which is an
homage to will Eisner cover
of spirit which has like I
don't know if you've seen
that yet I don't think that
I share that with you yet
because I got it recently
yeah yeah it's like the
title Crimson Bay I can I
I could potentially send it
to you if you want.
Yeah, if you wanted to send it real quick,
I could possibly share it
and show people.
Let me see if I can find it.
It's still in black and white.
I always find covers in
black and white to be
really nice sometimes.
Yeah, it's a really nice cover,
but it's this.
Oh, I don't want to open it.
I want to link.
It's always hard when you
get put on the spur of the
moment trying to get
something done like that.
It's always difficult
because you have to cooperate with you.
Did you get that?
Let me hit the refresh over here.
No,
did you email it or did you send it
over on Blue Sky?
Oh, I sent it here.
Does that send to everyone?
Did everyone see the link?
No, no, no.
It went to private chat.
Hang on.
I got you.
I can send it to the blue.
No, that's perfect.
I'm just, um, here we go.
Then let me move it over to here.
Oh, that's dude.
That's sick.
Actually.
Uh, let me do a screen share real quick.
Yeah, it has like these, uh, the, that is,
yeah, it's amazing.
Oh, here we go.
See screen share.
Got it.
I don't know if... Oh, here we go.
There.
Boom.
Dude, that is sick.
Yeah.
That's freaking awesome.
I can't wait to see that in color.
That's going to be amazing.
Yeah.
So, yeah, Gabriel, who did Prey,
and he did a few covers for me.
Yeah, he did this cover.
Prey's got some sick covers, too.
I don't know how many of the
people out there watching this are...
will listen to this later if
you haven't read prey it is
such an awesome book and
the cover on it was just
amazing and this right here
is like absolutely phenomenal
yeah same artist the colors
is going to be the same as
well uh so yeah he yeah uh
I can't wait to see the
colored version but it just
looks great uh I mean yeah
it's an homage to the will
eisner you know of all
people cover it's yeah it's
I'm really happy with this
cover as well so yeah yeah
that's that's that's
phenomenal dude yeah so um
no more teasing of the people
yeah there's those um
there's those three covers
and uh yeah then I have
like the what I was telling
you about about the isco
combos which is like three
books crimson bay plus you
know two other books that
if you get all three you
get you save on shipping
costs so I'm trying to
focus on those uh bundles yeah
Combos.
So, yeah,
that's very much the kind of rewards.
I also kind of have one to be drawn on,
you know, a feature comic because,
you know, I think people do enjoy that.
That's become really popular
in Kickstarter over the last, like,
year or so that I noticed that, you know,
you go up to a certain dollar level,
like,
the writer or artist writer
will include you in the
comic book to a certain degree,
or they'll do a rendering
image of you as a dead guy
laying on the side or something,
which I think that's really
cool if within reason.
You know what I'm saying?
I've seen how much some
people charge for that, and I'm just like,
dude, you're way over your head on that.
This is a Kickstarter campaign.
I'm like, I mean,
if somebody really is like
a big fan and a big
supporter of that person, yeah, obviously,
you know, go for it.
But some of those prices
I've seen out there for
some of that stuff, I'm like, dude,
that kind of money could
fund like three campaigns
for some people.
yeah yeah I mean it's not
like you know it's not
going to be totally I don't
know which values you you
saw but it's not going to
be like completely insane
thing I've seen some that
were like several grand
just uh yeah it was
obscenely it's like grossly
overpriced no I mean
especially because it's
like you say right it's
like you're going to be some that guy or
Like, you know, not that that guy,
but like a goon or, you know,
some someone who is going
to appear and be, you know, to me,
like when I see like a
price like that attached to something,
I'm like, oh,
is Mark Miller doing this
book or Mark Spears?
Like who's doing this book?
yeah you know if I'm seeing
that kind of price on
something to be included in
the book to some degree I'm
thinking it's somebody huge
yeah I'm not there yet
three doors down coloring a
book with crayons you know
yeah may never be so you
know no not yet um yeah
it's it's basically that
it's just focusing on
that's really cool man
because when it's done
correctly it's really cool to see
yeah yeah and it's
definitely not going to be
like you know um you know
like main characters stuff
like that it's like you
know um yeah it's just like
you're going to be like
some you know extra let's
put it like that it's like
yeah that's really cool I
mean like I mean I mean
imagine though you're
flipping through a book
that you helped fund and on
page you know twenty six
there you are standing in the crowd like
You know, or something like that.
To me, that's really cool.
And when done correctly in a
cost-effective way,
it's something really cool.
Because that makes you want to be like, oh,
yeah, dude, how cool would this be?
So... But no, I know whatever you do,
you're going to do it right.
I've not... Definitely not
hundreds of... I've seen, like I said,
I've seen some that were
just absolutely absurd and...
like the expectation, you know, when you,
you know,
cause as a writer and as a
person running a campaign,
you're going to share your
artwork for the book to
some degree on the campaign page.
And like some of the books
that we're seeing that
we're offering that as a option,
it's like, good, thanks.
You know, it's just like,
it almost felt like,
I'm hoping this is like the rough sketches,
like a storyboard type of
thing where you're showing
the storyboard.
I hope this isn't what's
actually the pages going
into this book is.
Yeah.
And that's not a knock on
anybody or just
observations I've made
while looking at on
Kickstarter and just like, you know,
sometimes you're just sitting around like,
Hey,
let me see what's on Kickstarter and just,
you know, get a feel.
Cause I think that's a good, um,
of indicator of like how
comic art evolves is
hopping on kickstarter and
just having to look through
some of the things that are
happening on kickstarter
because I think you know a
lot of the art styles they
eventually make their way
mainstream and stuff like
that like the anime style yeah
which I think the anime
style has been around for a while,
but the first time you
really see it mainstream, in my opinion,
in a comic book form was
Peach Momoko doing Visions
and some of the other
things she's done with Marvel.
And to me, like...
I don't think she started
that but from a mainstream
comic book perspective
she's the very first one I
can think of off the top of
my head that really put
that stamp on it and made
it something that a lot of
other people are trying to
now I don't want to say
imitate but like pick up
that style and go with it
which is really cool yeah
it became more um I don't know um
I mean, it's mainstream.
Yeah.
But I don't want to say like
somebody stole something or
copied something,
but it's definitely an influence.
Yeah.
And I think sometimes it's
not so much that you're
being influenced by that.
It's that you have that style.
It's just that style was not as,
I don't know, accepted, I guess,
in comics.
Yeah.
I think that's really dope because, I mean,
Peach Momoko did a whole
comic book where there's no
words spoken whatsoever.
Yeah.
It's all told through
actions of the characters in the book.
And it's probably one of my
favorite comic books of all
times with Star Wars
visions that she did.
So again, zero words.
Yeah.
No writing whatsoever.
I mean, the writing is there.
The story was beautiful.
Yeah, the writing is there,
just not too many words.
Exactly, and it was done wonderfully.
So, I mean,
I really appreciate the anime style,
but what I'm getting at is
I think Kickstarter is a
great indication of where
you can kind of see future
of comic books and the arts
and stuff like that going
when you're paying
attention to what you're looking for.
And you have a lot of
amazing artists there as well.
I mean,
you can see it's really hard to go
on Kickstarter and not see
something that you like
because there's a lot.
Yeah.
It really is.
And I'm blown away every
time I'm on Kickstarter by
some of the books on there
and some of the art on there.
Some of the stories being
told because they're never
going to see mainstream
either due to the content of the book
Are there just no studios
willing to roll dice on a book like that?
And that's what I love about
Kickstarter so much is
there's people out there
making some really,
really good horror books
that buy what we see horror
books as sold on the
mainstream marketplace
through comic book shops.
But on Kickstarter,
there's a reason why that book just moved,
you know,
ten thousand or twenty thousand
units because you can't get
it anywhere else.
And Kickstarter is the only
place where it can be funded.
And they're beautifully done.
They're scary as hell.
It feels like you're the
next victim on the next
page because they're so good.
But so outside,
like what's the ultimate
goal for Crimson Bay once
you're fully funded and
where do you see this
project going into future?
I know you've kind of hinted
that there's definitely an issue too.
Oh yeah.
Which is the first time out
of your mouth you said
there will be an issue too.
Yeah, yeah, no.
So the projects I've done
before were made,
basically like um one shots
or anthologies because you
know you're starting out
you want to start out
without a big commitment
that sort of stuff but yeah
I think I'm at the point
where you know Crimson Bay
is a series Flame Vault is
going to be a series um uh
the Odyssey that one looks
really cool too if you
follow Bruno on Kickstarter
you've seen the teaser for
that one it's like a
I don't want to say mid-century,
but like a... You're taking
it back to the golden years of the UK,
I'm guessing.
When there's knights and
damsels in distress,
it kind of feels like...
You're talking about Family and Honor.
Yeah, sorry.
That's it.
My bad.
That one looks really cool too.
yeah yeah I mean I have
several projects right now
on pre-launch on
kickstarter uh so yeah but
uh I'm moving more towards
that uh you know the series
so crimson bay yeah is
going to be the first one
to be released issue one
it's this kickstarter issue
two is well into you know
art art uh so samuel sent me
today pages nine to twelve
okay so do you know how
long this book is gonna be
like how many rounds are we
getting out of this book
not sure I think the first
start is going to be like
five six probably six okay
from what I outlined so far
um yeah I I have
I don't have like a
definitive answer for how
long it's going to be,
but it's probably going to be like three,
four hours at least.
Okay.
Each week five books.
So yeah, just, you know,
I like those numbers.
I like when a book goes, you know,
five or six, you know,
issues are in this case rounds.
I think, I think that's a good number.
And I know recently, um,
at San Diego comic-con.
Tiny Onion and James Tinian
announced that something is
killing the children is
probably going to be more like a hundred.
I'm like, dude,
we're on issue thirty four.
Yeah.
Yeah, but if you look at like other,
you know, series that did really well,
you know,
like Walking Dead and that stuff
like that.
Yeah.
Went to the hundreds.
So, yeah.
So
So that's a conversation I
actually just had at my
local comic book shop with
the owner is like you don't
see a lot of books do that
outside of like, you know, Batman,
Superman, X-Men, your bigger name.
So for indie publication, Image,
in my opinion,
hasn't been a indie
publication in a long damn time.
Not since the nineties, basically,
in my opinion.
But it's just not something you see.
I know like Grimm is getting
ready to end over at Boom
Studios with twenty five
volumes and twenty five beautiful issues.
I must say it is hands down
one of my top fives, you know,
from studios.
And that one kind of hit because, you know,
we're on issue twenty three right now,
Grimm, and I'm just like.
there's only two more of this.
Like, like I'm happy.
Yeah.
But at the same time, I'm like,
it's ending though.
You know,
like you don't know how to feel about it,
but you know, a lot of things, you know,
I know Mark Miller is
really big in like five or six issues,
you know,
and sometimes they feel a little
rushed and,
but I understand why he did
it the last time he did it,
because he was getting
ready to jump into a bigger
project and he needed that
time to work on that, which, cool.
Completely understand.
It felt rushed, but at the same time,
appropriate ending.
Just a little rush, I think.
But that five assists range is, I think,
a good...
You can get a good story, you know,
comic books for twenty six,
thirty two pages,
somewhere in that range.
And it's a lot of time and a
lot of stuff you can cover
in that time frame with the
right artists and the right
letter and stuff like that.
Yeah,
it's definitely hard to get to those.
Yeah, even getting to the thirties,
you know,
for most creators is really hard.
But getting to a hundred, I mean,
you need to be, you know,
need to be robert kirkman or
tinian right you know you
need to be those guys I
still don't think I'm
trying to think well you
know tinian has finished
some books he's finished uh
the deviant which is a
phenomenal phenomenal series um
I mean, the house in the lake,
he technically finished it.
He just did, you know, a sequel,
but he technically finished it.
He did,
and then he started with the sequel
to The Nice House on the Lake.
Or not The Nice House on the Lake.
The Sea.
Nice House by the Sea, yeah.
Thank you.
Another one.
Just phenomenal,
phenomenal work by Tinian.
can literally have a whole
episode on just talking
about tinian's work because
I'm such a huge fan of his
yeah and what he does and
like right now exquisite
corpses to me is like the
comic book of I haven't
read that yet dude it's
phenomenal phenomenal it's
like every halloween the rich people
select their serial killer
and drop it into a small town.
Oh.
And then let chaos and mayhem, you know,
go.
And how they did it is they
created a playing card game.
And whoever dies in the card
game is the next murderer
to die in the comic book.
Okay.
So it's a really cool
concept how they're
combining this card game
they're playing with their
friends into the comic book
to determine who dies next in the book.
Yeah, that's a cool concept.
I need to check that out.
Yeah.
What's the name of the book, sorry?
Exquisite Corpses.
I mean,
the characters are absolutely phenomenal.
Is that Tinian?
Yes.
Oh.
Yeah.
I need to check this.
yeah I'm trying to think
trying to remember when the
last one came out and if I
have it sitting here or not
no but I did get just oh
that's the new Garth Ennis
right there war dude that
book is amazing yeah it's
Garth Ennis man of course it's amazing
Garth Dennis is up there, dude.
He's like, he slaps his name on anything.
A coloring book, I'm buying it.
Yeah.
Just like Tinian.
There's certain people who
they could put their name
on anything and it's like, okay,
I'll take two.
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
I definitely have some some
some writers that I'm that
it's like that for me as
well that I'm like, yeah,
I want all of their stuff.
And Tinian is increasingly
becoming one of them.
I just didn't know about this book.
Now, you got to check it out.
He's got a few.
And this he he has his own
publisher or own publishing
name now with Tiny Onion.
like in my eyes,
I've never thought the dude
could do any wrong when it
comes to what he does.
He,
and it's unique to him and how he tells
stories.
Garth Ennis, very much the same way.
There's certain writers, like, like I said,
like they could slap their
name on anything and be like, yeah,
Joe Hill, you know, Stephen King, like,
slap their name on anything, man.
And Clyde Barker, you know, recipe book.
Give me.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I'll take two every time.
But, um,
No, I'm sorry.
We got way off topic there.
It's fine.
I'm happy to talk about comics.
I am too.
That seems to be how these
interviews usually go,
and I don't have any issues
with that as long as we get
to your book and
celebrating you and your new Kickstarter.
I'm all goods, man.
But no, I'm really –
happy that we're going to
get you know a good series
you know and this is this
one is kicking off
perfectly in my opinion and
how you're introducing the
characters and like the
cliffhanger you left for
this one fits the story so
well because you know now
the main character has this
huge dilemma he's got a
face going forward and knowing that
His end goal of defeating
the mayor has this huge
kink in its chain.
Well, really huge, actually,
because that bodyguard is a
fucking giant.
Pardon my language,
but that dude was gigantic.
He looked like that one
fighter from Street Fighter.
Blanka?
no no the big russian dude
yeah yeah I don't know how
you pronounce that but yeah
but zingif zingif however
you want to say it yeah
that's that's like as soon
as I've seen him I'm like
dude that looks like zingy
from street fighter I'm
like I don't know if it was
intended that way or not no
it wasn't but that's the
vibe like the size of him
because he's just this huge
massive human being
And his fighting style was
very similar to that.
And I was just like...
Because he relies on that
brute power and just
guessing what the fighter
he's fighting is going to
do next and being ahead of it.
I'm like, dude, this is so fucking good.
Pardon my language, everybody out there,
but... The book is just
like... It's a good blend.
Like...
So there's like two really
good fights in the story.
So it's not heavily convoluted with that.
Like you would kind of go
into it thinking like, oh,
it's based off of this.
So you're going to see a lot of fighting.
And you do.
But it's like the perfect
amount of like the first
fight that's like this.
He's where he's fighting for money.
And then in the one where
he's rescuing these people
and you get introduced to
the main character,
other main characters in the story,
the antagonists and everything.
But just it's done so well, you know,
the blend of it with the action of it.
And it's not like just a fight, fight,
fight, fight, fight,
like in an actual video game.
It's like you get a story, a fight,
some story, some story, some fight.
And then like,
this great cliffhanger of,
it's just going to,
you could tell like your
main character is so conflicted now,
even though your antagonist is like, oh,
we meet again, eh?
Like he knows why he's there, you know?
And now he just did what he did.
So now he,
the main bad guy knows that our
main character is now heavily conflicted.
And I say all that to say this.
If you back Crimson Bay,
you are in for a fun read, a great ride,
with a great storyteller with Bruno,
and you're not going to be disappointed.
The colors of the book, the art style,
which you always find the
best artist to match what the story is.
so it's yeah bruno I know
I'm blowing a lot of hot
smoke up your rear end
right now but it's all true
well thank you so much
nailed it again dude thank
you yeah um yeah I mean I I
I don't take uh praise well
so I will say that the art
and the colors are amazing
because I haven't done
those so I can say those are amazing
So yeah, I'll...
No, I'm telling you,
shout out to the whole team over there.
And if your artist or your
colorist ever wants to come
on the podcast, pass on the information.
I just talked to Francisco Nilo,
who worked on Videlirium,
the comic book for Videlirium.
Outstanding comic book
artist out of Argentina.
He was on the show to talk
about his artwork and how I
got him into comic books.
I love talking to the artists as well,
because to me, that kind of...
it's like this nice,
like you're getting the
same perspective from two
different angles, you know?
And I think that's really, really cool.
And now being early announcement,
but in October,
Me and Fran, Francisco Nilo,
will be live talking about
our favorite horror comic books,
which is going to be a really dope time.
Nice.
Yeah, he was like, dude,
we got to come back and do this again,
but just talk about horror comic books.
I was like, I love it.
Let's do it.
When do you want to do it?
So that's going to be my big
October show is going to be
just me and him talking
about our favorite scary comic books.
That's really cool, yeah.
I mean,
I'm pretty sure there's going to be
a lot of Tinian there.
A lot of Tinian, yes, definitely.
Like Dread the Hall H just came out,
which is a prequel to The Deviant.
Mm-hmm.
Phenomenal.
So this is much more indie,
but do you know Afterlight Comics?
No, I have to look into them.
Afterlife comics?
Afterlife comics, so Joseph Oliver.
Okay, I'll look into them.
Yeah, because he makes a lot of, do I have,
I mean, I would need to search.
I do have a lot of his comics.
You can shoot it to me later.
Yeah.
One of the ones I can find, but yeah,
like stuff like this.
He does pretty much exclusively horror.
That's pretty dope.
I love the good foil.
Not overdone foil,
but just that perfect amount of foil.
Yeah, just the text.
Just the title.
That's really cool.
Definitely check out his
stuff because you might like it.
Shoot it to me in the message later.
That way I can look him up.
Is he on Kickstarter or has
he got his own site where you can buy it?
He's on Kickstarter like every two weeks.
He's the most prolific guy I
know on Kickstarter.
I'll probably follow him
then because there's a few
on there I follow and I'm
just like... I find them to
be kind of like... I don't
want to say pricey, but...
Like I think I bought maybe
a book from him once,
but then it was like, geez,
why am I getting a
notification for another
book or in another book?
It's like some of them just
have this huge like vast
library of stuff they want
to get published.
Yeah.
I'm like, dude,
you're asking a lot for the
people who like your work, man.
Yeah, he's a proper publisher now,
so he goes directly to –
publishing company itself to
stores and stuff like that
okay so it has like a cycle
of yeah um I forgot which I
can't remember if it was
ben lacy or one of the
other interviewers I did
but he's that way he has a
direct the publisher type
of thing bobby campbell with um
What's the name of the book he's doing?
Tales of the Illuminatis.
He goes direct to publisher
with his stuff when he finishes it.
So the book will get
produced no matter what.
It's just then selling it.
And then he sells it off a
Kickstarter basically.
Great book.
Fun book based off a great
trilogy of actual books.
But he's that way.
He has a publisher that
produces it for him.
Which is really cool.
I wish there were more of those.
They were more prolific.
But there's just not a lot
of publishers anymore.
Yeah.
So... And... I hate to see... Like,
I love print.
But digital's cool.
But it's just something
about the smell of a
freshly printed comic book.
just like even a comic book
that's been in storage for a little bit,
when you open the seal from
the bag and board,
cause I still mine with, with these,
these are the greatest things ever.
They're just little resticable dots,
but they don't stick to your books.
Like if you get stuck to your book,
it just comes off.
It doesn't pill pages and stuff like that.
But when you pill this off
and you open it and then
when that smell of the
paper and the ink hits you, like,
that never gets old.
Yeah.
Getting high on comic books.
Yes.
It just doesn't get old.
I love that smell, but let's wrap it up,
Bruno and give us,
sell us your book real quick.
mean I can't do it better
than you already did so
yeah it's a fun you know
martial arts um action book
based on you know your
favorite animes video games
and movies growing up so
if it had martial arts in the nineties,
it's probably,
it probably influences this.
That's it.
And yeah, there's a lot of fighting,
but it's also moving story along.
So it's not just fighting
and the art is gorgeous.
And yeah, I mean, it's a, it's a series.
You're going to get it from the start.
So you don't have like a backlog of,
you know,
ten years of comics that you
haven't read.
So.
Yeah.
yeah it's you know just
getting it from the
beginning and um yeah and
hopefully it's a fun read
and um I don't know that
that's that's it so that
that yeah that that sums it
up beautiful beautiful
colors great story nineties
action video game drama and action
It's a great way for Bruno
to kick off his first series.
Series, not anthology, not one shot,
but series.
And I'm absolutely loving it.
It has my seal of approval
as the chairman of the
United States Department of Nerds.
Now, Bruno,
tell everybody where they can
find you on social media.
Yeah,
you'll find me mostly on Blue Sky on
Bruno Caterino, I think.
Yes, that's correct.
Okay.
Oops.
Did I?
Oh, no.
What did you do?
I lost the blue sky window.
No, I lost this window, your window.
Ah, okay.
I'm back.
I'm back.
Okay.
It's brunocaterino.bluesky.social.
But if you just type in Bruno,
and then when you go to type to see,
he's probably going to be
the first person that comes up.
So yeah, that's that.
There's Facebook,
but you can find me by my name as well.
And yeah, that's pretty much it.
I'm off pretty much
everywhere else at the moment.
We got to get you back on the Instagram,
buddy.
it's back on the ground it's
a lot of work it is trust
me I know I I I'm gonna
like buy different
platforms and yeah it's
like I have a system of how
I post on things now and I
start with hit this one and
I'll work myself across my
internet tabs and
and get stuff posted.
That's what works for me.
But yeah, it's absolutely a lot of work.
But Bruno, as always, man,
I can't appreciate it enough.
We being the person you come
to for your kit starters,
we always look forward to you coming on.
Can't wait for the next one
because you're coming back, right?
I'm definitely coming back
if you have me dude you're
always always welcome back
so what's coming up next
for the chairman I will
tell you uh july's comic
book wrap up will be coming
out either tomorrow or
monday I'm a little late on
it but that's all good I'm
always going to be late on
my new comic book day stuff
but this will be the first
one for a whole month.
So it's going to be a lot,
but I'm going to do
everything I can to sum it
up in a nice way.
September the
We will have Ben Lacey on
with Shark Award issue
number nine in honor of
Shark Week that we just had
last week or two weeks ago.
He decided to release that
ninth issue of Shark Award.
Really fun comic book about a...
I experimented on Shark that
Saves the World.
Really cool, really dope book,
really fun and just kind of
like bizarre and out there.
So very different than what
I would normally read,
but it's still it's just a very fun book.
So and of course, as always,
you can find the chairman
on Facebook under the
United States Department of Nerds.
on Instagram as USDN Podcast,
on Blue Sky as USDN Chairman,
and on YouTube as the USDN Podcast.
And as always, Bruno,
thank you very much for
letting the USDN be a part
of your Kickstarter kickoff
campaign as always.
Can't say how much I
appreciate that enough
because it really is always
an honor to have you on and
be your go-to source to
kick off these things.
I really appreciate you
putting that trust in us.
And with that, ladies and gentlemen,
Crimson Bay,
Bruto Caterino is USDN approved.